February 16, 2013

This occurred because Costa Rica was all the way south in the Captaincy General of Guatemala and forbidden to trade with the Viceroyalty of New Granada (to its south), and it lacked gold and silver and an indigenous population to do forced labor. In the long run — if I am to believe the presentation on the Wikipedia "History of Costa Rica" page — this all worked out for the best:

... Costa Rica was by and large unappreciated and overlooked by the Spanish Crown and left to develop on its own. The small landowners' relative poverty, the lack of a large indigenous labor force, the population's ethnic and linguistic homogeneity, and Costa Rica's isolation from the Spanish colonial centers in Mexico and the Andes all contributed to the development of an autonomous and individualistic agrarian society. Even the Governor had to farm his own crops and tend to his own garden due to the poverty that he lived in. An egalitarian tradition also arose. Costa Rica became a "rural democracy" with no oppressed mestizo or indigenous class.

(In the "History of" project on this blog, we're going through the Wikipedia "History of" pages for all the 206 countries in the world, in alphabetical order.)

32 comments:

Costa Rica is doing extremely well for itself in the adventure tourist trade. My daughter and son in law honeymooned there, they loved it. Just enough of "roughing it ", mixed with the amenities of civilization just down the road. Little chirping green lizards, no extra cost.

I've spent some time there and they are distinct from other parts of Latin America and very aware of why that is. They take pride in that isolation and how it shaped their government and culture. I like them. Good coffee

Costa Rica became a "rural democracy" with no oppressed mestizo or indigenous class.

... because the locals were wiped out by disease and (presumably) attempts at exploitation. Kind of like the Bahamas and the Antilles, with the absence of any useful cash crop worth the expense of import of African slaves. I seem to remember that it's a nasty lee coast on the Caribbean side, as well, which means that it didn't attract freebooters and pirates looking to prey on the Veracruz and Cartegena trade.

The lack of indigenes to exploit and enslave, which ensured no permanent rural underclass (e.g. Chiapas and Ayacucho) was bequeathed to the future, also informs the trajectories of countries like Chile and (Peronism aside) Argentina.

I love Costa Rica. The friendliest people on Earth... they love their democracy. Most people live on the high central plateau where San Jose (the capital) is. It's near the equator, but the altitude is such that the temperature hovers around 75F all year. No need for heating and a/c in the home. I recall telling some folks that we were going to beach for the day... "Ughh... what you want to go down there for? So hot!"

What struck me during my visit there was the people's love for their country. Proud without being fanatics about it. That and their warmth for people from other countries. I felt welcome in everyplace I visited. I spent New Year's in the beach, around a palm tree bunfire surrounded by so many from different places. I felt in love with that place... And I should've stayed and continue my life there when she asked me to.

Several years and several jobs ago I worked with a woman who originally was from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. She was black, had an English name, was English-speaking with an accent similar to a Jamaican's, and considered herself Caribbean rather than Latin American.

Spent some time there in the early 1970s before any development in Guanacaste. Met Donald Nixon, who worked for Robert Vesco who had fled there with an airplane and a few hundred million of other people's money. Shot pigeons sitting on the hood of a Rolls Royce with some rich guys from the capital. Tres de Junios. Pan American Hwy. A few thousand gringos there in those days reading the Tico Times published daily in English.

Spent some time there in the early 1970s before any development in Guanacaste. Met Donald Nixon, who worked for Robert Vesco who had fled there with an airplane and a few hundred million of other people's money. Shot pigeons sitting on the hood of a Rolls Royce with some rich guys from the capital. Tres de Junios. Pan American Hwy. A few thousand gringos there in those days reading the Tico Times published daily in English.

When I was in college in the '60's, the former president of Costa Rica, Jose Figueres, was a guest lecturer. I remember his describing the successful effort by his group to overthrow the dictatorial government then in power (the government may have been a military junta, I'm not sure, but if so, they got rid of the military as soon as they took over). The overthrow had to be delayed by a week or two, because the shipment to the rebels of a case or two of .45 caliber ammunition was delayed. They needed the ammunition for their M. 1911 pistols and Tommy guns.

I've been going to Costa Rica to surf since the early '70's. We'd tuck our long hair under baseball caps to cross the borders (Centro American border guards took a dim view of American hippie surfers) and drive down from Florida in our VW camper vans to surf the unknown spots in Guanacaste, etc. Was down there during Iran-Contra and the secret war. Hung out at Noogies in Tamarindo and was mistaken for a "Company" man. I have mid 80's stories that I'll never tell anywhere except around a small quiet table and then with a look over my shoulder. Now it's a tourista place and being written about on Althouse blogspot. Ahhhh the days of me youth. Caught some killer waves though before the masses descended.

I wonder if the name Costa Rica was done for reasons along the same lines as Greenland--give it a nice sounding name so people with go there instead of someplace harsh sounding like Iceland.

I had a college room mate that was half Costa Rican and half Scottish, he grew up mostly in Costa Rica and was fluent in Spanish. He had hispanic features but was big, like a football player and had blond hair. Christopher Robin Flores.

Surfed. I was north of Tamarindo on the Golfo de Papagayo, Bahia Culebra. Fished off the Bat Islands. Too close to Nicaragua for comfort. In those days Costa Rica was totally intolerant of marijuana and there were harsh penalties for possession. Nice country to visit and nice people but not a good country to be in a jail. We kept our hair short.

You will remember the wonderful tradition of cars and trucks turning their lights out at night before a mountain curve. Why? So they could see the lights of oncoming cars. This logic coupled with machismo led to the plethora of crosses at every mountain curve. God, I love Central America.

It sounds like the Switzerland of Latin America! My gal and I went in 2008 and were blown away by the beauty, the friendliness, the wonderful coffee (we went to a real coop, and I still hear from a cafe owner occasionally on Facebook)... they've got a good thing going, and they know it. Pura vida, in my heart, always.